Slitting Saws and Arbors

[65arboc]

So I think I need a slitting saw for my ShopTask 17-20 XMTC Gold Series bench-top mill. What should I get to get started? I mostly cut aluminum but may want to slot some mild steel parts. I see MSC has a bazillion choices but where to start?:thinking:


Thanks,

Jim

 

[Smudgemo]

I don' t know how much this helps, but I'd suspect your machine lacks the rigidity to use thicker saws (but I could be talking out of my hat and apologize if so.) I mostly use mine to slot 4130 tubes for dropouts in bicycle building and I can turn .25" saws for one cut or thinner ones like .035" doing two cuts for this sort of thing.




The thinner blades are obviously easier to use with a less-rigid setup as the thicker sort will bounce a bit while cutting. You also need to know how deep you're planning to go. The arbor is going to take up a good chunk of depth.



Pay attention to feeds/speeds so you don't burn up your saw. They need to run more slowly than something smaller like an endmill or drill.

You might want to take a stroll through ebay if you don't have a need for a specific size. Seems like plenty of them out there. Most of the ones I bought were still sharp and ready to work, and tons cheaper than MSC. I'd also suggest a decent arbor like the sort that are MT2 or R8 (or whatever you need) as opposed to the one in the photos. It does handle multiple blade sizes and has a .5" shank, but it can slip and the fixing screw is normally difficult to remove even though I kept it clean and oiled. I seem to recall stripping a couple of cheap allen wrenches trying to loosen it once before.

-Ryan

 

[ridgeway]

I have a Grizzly R8 arbor a d a few of their HSS blades. Very nice stuff for the money...

 

[TomS]

Ryan pretty much covered it. I buy a lot of cutting tools, including slitting saws, from Victor Machinery. They a good selection at a reasonable price.

Tom S

 

[kd4gij]

I got these from HF. http://www.harborfreight.com/6-piece-hss-saw-blade-with-mandrel-set-67224.html I made an arbor and have been using them on my G0704 Cutting Al. and mild steel.

 

[hvontres]

If you have access to a lathe, the arbor is pretty easy to make out of some CRS,

I posted a thread on mine here: http://www.hobby-machinist.com/showthread.php?t=23791

 

[Skarven]

Martindale has a very good paper on saws. It has a lot of info.
A good exaple is page 13 on cutting speeds and feeds.